Nepal has submitted its first ever competition film titled SHAMBHALA to the 2024 Berlinale Film Festival. The film will be shown at the festival on Feb 23.

Set in the Nepalese Himalayas, Shambhala follows a woman in a polyandrous marriage with a man and his two younger brothers; when the man fails to return from a trading trip, the woman sets off to find him to give legitimacy to her unborn child.

Please watch the Official Trailer for SHAMBHALA

Also please visit the Official Website for the Berlinale Film Festival

The tragic death was reported by Marvel studios when one of their set builder person working on the set of the new superhero film WONDER MAN has fallen and died on the scene on Feb 6. The crew member was identified as 41 year old Juan Carlos Osorio who was walking at a high elevation working on the new set for Marvel's new upcoming film. Marvel Studios was not yet filming at the time but the set builders were creating the set where filming will take place. The film has already been delayed due to the writers and actors strike.

Our condolences to set builder Juan Osorio's family and friends.

Toshihiko Tanaka's human relationships drama REI - along with Iranian filmmaker Oktay Baraheni's film - took the top award at the Rotterdam Film Festival this year. Toshihiko Tanaka took the Tiger Award - with a cash prize of 40,000 Euros.

The drama revolves around a woman in her early thirties in a company job in Tokyo who is struggling to understand the value of her life until she meets a deaf landscape photographer living deep in the mountains of Hokkaido.

"The jury decided to give the Tiger Award to a burgeoning film director who chose to develop his debut film in a loose and unbounded environment," said the jury consisting of Marco Müller, Ena Sendijarević, Nadia Turincev, Billy Woodberry and Herman Yau.

Additional winners with other prizes included Indian director Midhun Murali, Australian filmmaker Jaydon Martin, and the NETPAC Award for the best Asian feature film, awarded by a jury from the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema, went to Ishan Shukla's Indian director dystopian animated feature Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust.

Congratulations to the winners and wishing them best of success in the future.

View the Official Trailer for REI.

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Universal Studios begins putting together the next Jurassic World film

For this new installment, however none of the previous main cast are expected to return, no Chris PrattChris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard are expected to be back, nor the original trilogy's thespians Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern and Sam Neill, however the project is being picked up by Steven Spielbergs production studio Amblin Entertainment. Executive producers or producers are expected to be Steven Spielberg himself along with Frank Marshall and Patrick Crowley and currently the director selected is David Leitch. David Leitch has well proven himself in the action genre as he is also know for starting the very successful John Wick frenchise with the latest installment also featuring Donnie Yen.

The last Jurassic World movie 'Dominion' - which was released in 2022 - still passed the $1 billion mark at the box office and that prompted the continuation of the story by Universal Studios.

The new Jurassic movie is expected to be in theaters sometime middle of 2025.

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Here is a sample from the music of the film: view sample video, and some additional images.

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Years after retiring from their formidable ninja lives, a dysfunctional family must return to shadowy missions to counteract a string of looming threats. The Tawara family, the last ninja clan. It had abandoned its roots after an incident in the past, but now the family must take on the greatest crisis in Japanese history, one that threatens to shake the nation to its core.

House of Ninjas is a story about a Ninja family that lives in the shadows. Known as the Tawara family, they're the only Ninjas left in Japan. After their last mission doesn't go as planned, the Tawara family decides to live normal lives and never use their powers again. However, a new threat is about to engulf Japan in its clutches, and these hidden ninjas have no choice but to be out and save humanity.

Even though they keep calling themselves a "normal" family, not everyone can hide their skills entirely. When the Tawara family hears of a toxin that is killing hundreds of Japanese people, they know it is time for them to come out of hiding. The Tawara family decides to reunite to save their people. The impact of the last mission is still on their minds. So, will they let go of the past and be their best and bravest selves to save humanity? We will find out everything once the show releases.

Cast: Kento Kaku, Yosuke Eguchi, Tae Kimura

Release date: 15 Feb 2024

View the Official Trailer

The Official Netflix Page for House of Ninjas

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Netflix is releasing a new version live-action series of the popular Nickelodeon series. The approach, according to showrunner Albert Kim and executive producer/director/VFX supervisor Jabbar Raisani? You change it up.

Based on the story created by Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko, Avatar: The Last Airbender is a fantasy series set in a world with four clans: the Fire Nation, the Water Tribe, Air Nomads and the Earth Kingdom. Aang is an adolescent child who awakens from a deep slumber after 100 years, and must learn who he is as the master avatar. Not only have the Four Nations been at war, but without the avatar, everything is out of balance in the physical and spirit worlds.

Aang feels alone as his tribe, the Air Nomads, have been exterminated. He finds friendship with teenagers Katara, a waterbender, and her brother Sokka, and meets others along the journey who help him understand not only his elemental powers, but how to navigate growing up. Not everyone in the story has bending abilities, but once he masters waterbending, airbending, firebending and earthbending, he can stop his adversary Fire Lord Ozai from taking over the world. The avatar state shows Aang at his most powerful -- which can be helpful or harmful.

The series taps into Asian and Indigenous traditions and folklore, packs in laughs and emotional storylines, and carries the characters through war, dysfunctional family dynamics, loss, love and more. Adventure, growth and relationships are core to the story, and viewers will get to see action-packed martial arts sequences, budding character arcs and special effects that bring bending and fantasy creatures like Appa to life.

The Last Airbender is executive-produced by Albert Kim, who also served as a writer, alongside Jabbar Raisani, Dan Lin, Lindsey Liberatore and Michael Goi. The cast features Gordon Cormier as Aang, Dallas Liu as Prince Zuko, Kiawentiio as the water-bending Katara, Ian Ousley as Sokka, Daniel Dae Kim as Fire Lord Ozai, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Uncle Iroh and Elizabeth Yu as Azula. Not to be left out, James Sie is returning as the Cabbage Man.

The show will debut with all eight episodes on Netflix on Thursday, Feb. 22. Rather than stream short episodes like the original, the new series will drop hour-long episodes that are family-friendly. However, the titles are different from what we've seen with the animated show.

Episodes:

1. Aang
2. Warriors
3. Omashu
4. Into the Dark
5. Spirited Away
6. Masks
7. The North
8. Legends

View the Official Trailer

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Those who have access to Hulu, this year with a coproduction with FX, Hulu is releasing an adventure-drama TV series called SHOGUN. The series is about when a mysterious European ship is found marooned in a nearby fishing village, Lord Yoshii Toranaga discovers secrets that could tip the scales of power and devastate his enemies.

It is an upcoming historical drama television limited series based on the 1975 novel of the same name by James Clavell that is set to premiere on Hulu, Disney+ (via the Hulu hub) and FX in the United States, Disney+ (Via Star) internationally, Disney+ and Star+ in Latin America. The novel was previously adapted into a 1980 television miniseries.

Premise
Shōgun follows "the collision of two ambitious men from different worlds and a mysterious female samurai; John Blackthorne, a risk-taking English sailor who ends up shipwrecked in Japan, a land whose unfamiliar culture will ultimately redefine him; Lord Toranaga, a shrewd, powerful daimyo, at odds with his own dangerous, political rivals; and Lady Mariko, a woman with invaluable skills but dishonorable family ties, who must prove her value and allegiance". Clavell's Shōgun is a fictionalized version of real events and history. The character of Blackthorne is loosely based on the historical English navigator William Adams, who in Japan rose to become a samurai under the strongest powerful daimyo, Tokugawa Ieyasu (on whom the character Yoshii Toranaga is based)

Season 1 episodes:

1. Anjin  (Feb 27)

2. Servants of Two Masters  (Feb 27)

3. Tomorrow is Tomorrow  (Mar 5)

4. The Eightfold Fence  (Mar 12)

5. Broken to the Fist  (Mar 19)

6. Ladies of the Willow World (Mar 26)

Cast:

Main
Hiroyuki Sanada as Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616))
Cosmo Jarvis as Pilot Major John Blackthorne (Miura Anjin (William Adams)) (1564–1620))
Anna Sawai as Toda Mariko (Hosokawa Gracia (1563–1600))
Tadanobu Asano as Kashigi Yabushige (Honda Masanobu (1538–1616))
Hiroto Kanai as Kashigi Omi (Honda Masazumi (1566–1637))
Takehiro Hira as Ishido Kazunari (Ishida Mitsunari (1559–1600))
Moeka Hoshi as Usami Fuji
Shinnosuke Abe as Toda Buntaro (Hosokawa Tadaoki (1563–1646))
Tokuma Nishioka as Toda "Iron Fist" Hiromatsu (Hosokawa Fujitaka (1534–1610))
Yasunari Takeshima as Muraji
Yuki Kura as Yoshii Nagakado (Matsudaira Tadayoshi (1580-1607))
Fumi Nikaido as Ochiba No Kata (Yodo-dono (1569–1615))
Tommy Bastow as Father Martin Alvito (João Rodrigues Tçuzu (1561–1634))
Yuka Kouri as Kiku
Yoriko Dōguchi as Kiri No Kata (Lady Acha (1555-1637))
Ako as Daiyoin / Lady Iyo (Kōdai-in (1549–1624))

Supporting
Toshi Toda as Sugiyama (Maeda Toshiie (1539-1599))
Hiro Kanagawa as Igurashi
Junichi Tajiri as Uejiro
Néstor Carbonell as Vasco Rodrigues
Nobuya Shimamoto as Nebara Jozen
Yuki Kedoin as Takemaru
Mako Fujimoto as Shizu No Kata
Haruno Niiyama as Natsu No Kata
Hiromoto Ida as Kiyama ukon Sadanaga (Konishi Yukinaga (1555-1600))
Takeshi Kurokawa as Ohno Harunobu (Otani Yoshitsugu (1558-1600))
Yuko Miyamoto as Gin
Yoshi Amao as Sera

View the Official Trailer for the series

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A story dedicated to Christopher Reeve

Sundance Film Institute is having a limited time screening of the new 2024 documentary 'Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story'. Sundance Film Institute releases the new 2024 documentary 'Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story' created by two documentary filmmakers Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui and also offers screening times to audiences to view the documenatry.

On this documentary dedicated to the life of Christopher Reeve the filmmakers go to the family and home of the former star and follow him through his career and also his family life. Moving backward and forward in time, filmmakers Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui expertly weave together a dual narrative exploring the life-changing impact of two pivotal moments in Christopher Reeve's career: being cast in 1978's Superman and becoming paralyzed in 1995.

Decades before superheroes took over the cinemas, Reeve made the world believe a man could fly; his accident brought worldwide awareness of disability. In Super/Man, Reeve's family and close confidantes demonstrate remarkable candor in their reflections on life before and after the accident. The result is a deeply moving film foregrounding the man behind Superman — not a hagiography, but a full-fledged portrait that encompasses both the soaring heights and the dark depths of Reeve's journey.

Screening times and locations:

JAN 21, 9:00 AM MST
Screening
The Ray Theatre
PARK CITY

JAN 24, 3:15 PM MST
Screening
Redstone Cinemas - 7
PARK CITY
OPEN CAPTION

JAN 26, 9:30 AM MST
Screening
Library Center Theatre
PARK CITY

JAN 27, 10:00 PM MST
Screening
Megaplex Theatres at The Gateway - Theater 8/9
SALT LAKE CITY

JAN 28, 12:30 PM MST
Screening
Holiday Village Cinemas - 3
PARK CITY